About Me: Trying to adult, all day and every day.

Favorites: See below for stories that I've read and loved.

AUTHOR'S NOTE (February 28, 2018)

I really like even numbers. But more importantly, this note is to explain why I've been so absent from writing (on here, at least). What happened? Real life and growing up. I started writing fan fiction because this was an amazing platform and escape for me when I was a really angry, depressed, and anxious teenager. This site has provided a creative outlet and such a (mostly) supportive community.

But I've grown up massively since high school. But since then, I have...

Most importantly, tackled my depression and anxiety, and have learned how to cope without hiding (most of the time). I want to thank every single person who has (and will) read, reviewed, followed, or favorited. It meant the world to me when I was a depressed teenager, and it still means the world to me now as a twenty-something-year-old woman who now has her life together, for the most part. I was looking at the overall statistics and am so overwhelmed an emotional while I write this - my heart is so full just from seeing how many people actually and shockingly enjoyed what I wrote.

I even want to thank every single person who used this site to send me rude, mean, or cruel messages or reviews from behind the shield of anonymity. Really, thank you. I grew so much tougher and stronger than I ever thought possible, and learned how to not judge myself based on the judgement of others.

And that's why instead of deleting everything, I'm leaving everything here for others who have come to this site for the same reason I did. To find acceptance and a little bit of happiness, in whatever form that it takes. I'm not promising that it gets better, because that's so ridiculous cliched and the last thing I had wanted to hear, but I will say that things improve when you least expect them to. And I'm a pretty good example (at least I think so), of someone who somehow survived to be happy. So just try to survive for now, and then you can have a better chance at learning how to thrive.

My stories will probably sit here in their current state, whether that be finished or unfinished. I have no plans of offering them up for adoption, but if you desperately want to continue something I started, please PM me. But don't worry! I'll still be around, reading anything and everything that interests me. If you have any story recommendations, I'm all ears. Or eyes, I guess.

Again, thank you, but it's not goodbye, it's just see you later. And who knows? Maybe you might see a novel by yours truly on the shelves of a bookstore near you in the next decade (if those still exist then).

Best and always,
lia-leigh

As a response to some things that I have seen on this site that made me feel hurt and sad for others, I fully believe that writing fan fiction should be for anyone. It's not a competition (unless you really want to make it one, and then you might be the only one competing), but a pursuit of happiness, a source of enjoyment, a place for the cultivation of ideas, and potentially even a launchpad for a future novelist. When therapy was a bust, and I felt desperate, sad, and suicidal, I turned to my laptop and wrote for hours. The worlds in my stories were way better than my reality. Although I won't go into every detail of my personal situation, I wanted to share this because I think everyone should have a safe place to escape to, whether physical or virtual.

Everyone should feel like they can express themselves through their writing without being attacked or judged or blasted for a comma being in the wrong place. In addition to that, it's called fan fiction for a reason. No one should be belittled for creating their own world within a framework initially designed by a brilliant author. This isn't Salem, and life shouldn't be a witch hunt.

Some of the things that I have seen written on this site are cruel and mean, and I know that people quite frankly wouldn't have the balls to say it to someone's face. But they do because they can hide behind their screen.

So be considerate and be kind. I believe in karma and I've heard she can be a bitch.

STORIES:

For my stories, I get the majority of my info from the HP Lexicon, however, from my perspective, writing fan fiction is not about sticking to every minute detail of canon, but crafting entirely new worlds and stories from the foundations that the original author put in place. All of my stories are AU.

Of Heirs and Changes: Chapter 21 is now up (12/29/2016).

Born a Potter, Raised a Black: Chapter 18 is up and the story is complete (7/24/2012).

Not Afraid to Live: The epilogue is now up and the story is complete (2/11/2012).

His Own Way: A story that I ran out of steam on and hasn't been updated since 2014. I was going to delete it, but I just couldn't bring myself to.